After crossing the finish line, Philipp Nawrath clenched his fist with a big grin on his face before falling into the arms of his cheering teammates.
Thanks to a strong performance on the shooting range, the German biathletes celebrated second place in the relay at the home World Cup in Ruhpolding and gained self-confidence three weeks before the start of the Olympic Games.
“That was a pointer for us. If everyone does their thing and we stick to our tactics, then we are definitely able to play along, »said Nawrath on ZDF, looking at the highlight of the season in Beijing.
Only the Russians were seven seconds faster, meaning that Erik Lesser, Roman Rees, Benedikt Doll and Nawrath just missed out on their first relay victory in ten months. Nawrath left the final standing stage twelve seconds behind Maxim Zwetkow of Russia and was able to halve the gap. “The gap was too big on the last mountain and that’s when I realized I couldn’t get there anymore,” said Nawrath, who had disappointed in the sprint as 41st. «The coolness is back. I’m super happy.” Third place went to Belarus.
Lesser upset about last lap
Starting runner Lesser made a spare while standing, but lost a lot of time on his last lap. “I missed the punch I had on Thursday. The last lap annoys me,” said Lesser, who was still doing “damage control”.
Rees started his race in fifth place, 18.2 seconds behind. And the 28-year-old was undeterred by his fall just before standing. After his “half backflip on the ass”, Rees still cleared everything and remained flawless on the shooting range. He couldn’t attack forwards, “the material wasn’t that great today,” said Rees.
«The absolute highlight»
The turning point was then initiated by Doll, who came second in the sprint and went into the cross-country ski run in sixth place, 25.7 seconds behind. After a spare in the first stop, the ex-world champion cleared his second series of five and brought the German relay clearly on course for the podium in third place. «The absolute highlight was standing without a single mistake. Lying down, the last mistake annoys me, I was almost back on the track again,” said Doll, who was “a bit difficult” on the trail this time.
Things went all the better for Nawrath. And the 28-year-old has probably positioned himself as the last runner with a view to the Olympic relay. Because Doll, who ran last for a long time, was again placed in third position. “We tried something again. Because the sprint to the finish is not my quality, Philipp is very strong in sprinting, »explained Doll.
Norwegian without stars in seventh place
The two-time winners of the season from Norway, where the top stars around Johannes Thingnes Bö were missing because of a training camp, only ended up in seventh place. There were problems in the first shooting, which resulted in two minutes being awarded to the Norwegians.
The two pursuit races will conclude on Sunday. For the women (12.45 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport), Franziska Hildebrand has the best starting position of the four Germans as 17th. In the men’s race (2:45 p.m.) it is Doll, who is second in the sprint, seven seconds behind Quentin Fillon Maillet from France. Lesser, who is sixth (+ 43 seconds), can still attack ahead. (dpa)